Herschel Walker wasn’t Tuesday’s only loser. Donald Trump lost big, too. So did the entire Republican Party. Herschel lost because he was the world’s worst candidate. Whatever skill sets Herschel has, running for office isn’t one of them (never mind the office for which he’s running!). But, Herschel didn’t make himself a candidate. Trump did that while the GOP stood by and watched. Sure, the GOP despaired because of Herschel’s ineptitude, but a hell of a lot of them voted for Herschel anyway. That’s because they’re all corrupt down to their mitochondria. And that is the Republican Party’s core problem. Corruption. Unfortunately for them, we’ve (finally!) arrived at the prosecution part of the program. It will only get worse from here. A steady drumbeat of prosecutions will be Election 2024’s soundtrack.
Putin Pays Trump
We’ve endured six years of treasonous corruption. Yes, treasonous. As this blog has been screaming for years now, current GOP Leader and Speaker Of The House wannabe Kevin McCarthy knew even before the Republicans nominated Trump that Russia owned him. On June 25, 2016 – a month before the GOP nominated Trump – McCarthy exited a meeting about Vladimir Putin’s active efforts to undermine Ukrainian democracy and entered a meeting of GOP leaders. The first thing McCarthy said upon entering the meeting was “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!” No one present – all GOP leaders, don’t forget – contradicted McCarthy. Not a single one of them even questioned McCarthy’s bold accusation. Instead, a few of them laughed nervously. That’s why McCarthy threw in the “Swear to God!” He was serious and wanted the room to know he was serious.
The room knew he was serious. Then Speaker of the House Paul Ryan knew McCarthy was serious. He stepped forward and told the room – all GOP leaders, I’ll reiterate – that they weren’t going to discuss it any further. Get that? The leaders of one of our two political parties refused to engage in a conversation about their suspicions that their about-to-be nominee for POTUS posed a grave national security threat. Ryan insisted there be “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
To this day, our news media – despite having reported the answer to their own question – still wonder about Trump’s hold on the GOP. They think it’s cultural when, in fact, it’s criminal. If pictures speak thousands of words, this notorious photo shouted whole volumes at us: “Putin pays Trump”.
But For Russia…
As we head into election 2024, we will begin the process of excavating election 2016. The January 6 insurrection happened because Trump was never 2016’s legitimate winner. He’s always known this – and projected it. Take Paul Manafort handing Oleg Deripaska proprietary polling data for Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania out of the 2016 equation and we don’t know if Trump wins those three states. It doesn’t matter actually. The fact that Trump conspired with Russia in any way, shape or form to win election? That’s a violation of the law. One cannot win that way – via cheating.
The fact that Trump “won” that way does not make it valid. It’s the deep, dark secret we’re going to have to confront before this is all over. Not only did Trump cheat to win in 2016, he committed treason as part of his cheating – and the entire Republican Party knew about it. The fact that they even suspected and did nothing? That makes them co-conspirators. To commit treason.
A Special Special Prosecutor?
It appears that Merrick Garland brought Jack Smith aboard as Special Prosecutor not to slow down the process, but to speed it up considerably. Good. If this is the tip of the prosecution iceberg, it won’t be just Trump who crashes into it. This will shred the entire GOP and send it spiraling to the bottom.
Republicans have luxuriated in a warm bath of cynical getting away with it all forever and ever. Guys like Roger Stone expect to get away with everything. It’ll truly be a shock to their systems when they find themselves eating prison dinner every night before crying themselves to sleep on their cold metal prison beds. Elections 2018, 2020 and 2022 depict a clear pattern – We The People know this is happening and we’re done with it. More and more of us are showing up to vote. Especially women and the youth vote. They want to empower corruption’s prosecution and prosecutors.
For the first time in his life, Trump faces a very real legal gauntlet. Jack Smith isn’t playing around. He’s got lots of citizens sitting on lots of Grand Juries investigating lots of Republicans and Republican malfeasance. Unless they declare the fifth, all those witnesses have, in essence, flipped on Trump: they’re painting the picture we’ve needed to see all along: about a criminal atop a criminal enterprise.
Smoking Guns And Howitzers
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has a phone call as evidence. Smoking gun? Smoking howitzer. She, too, has worked a Grand Jury hard. The instant her office starts dropping charges – and they absolutely will – the entire game will change. Hell, the instant charges start dropping anywhere will change the game. Stone cold fact: the game’s already changed. We’re just catching to events.
Flipping. That changes everything. And The Republican Party is about to be the Flipping Party. Their problem stems from being part of a conspiracy. See something, say something. See something, say nothing? We have to ask “why?” And the answer needs to be satisfying. It never, ever is.
Flipping The Republican Way
Once the Republicans realize that good deals are going quickly, they’ll flip on each other with mad abandon. They’ll have to. But, it won’t work. The good deals are mostly gone already.
Our news media – good at covering horse races, rubbish at everything else – have already begun handicapping election 2024. Oblivious of the world in which they live, they continue to normalize things that should never be normalized. The good news is that they love covering trials, too.
To that end, 2023 is going to be a golden age of prosecution. They will be the soundtrack of our times. To the Republicans – on the wrong end of the equation – it will sound like an ominous drumbeat. To the rest of us, it’ll be The Sound Of Music.
Courthouse Photo 25321155 © David May | Dreamstime.com